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Abstract
The Judiciary and Governance in 16 Developing Countries,
World Governance Survey Discussion Paper 9
Individuals and groups inevitably at times get into conflict
and societies require institutions that can resolve disputes.
As part of a project to undertake comprehensive governance
assessments, we focus here on the nature of the rules (formal
and informal) that affect the judicial arena. The legal culture
of a society is important for how people perceive not only
the judiciary but also the political system at large. The
way judicial institutions operate also has an impact on a
country's economic and development performance.
This paper presents the findings for the judiciary arena
in 16 developing countries. We find that the judicial arena
is problematic in virtually all countries included in our
survey. Access to justice remains low. Administration of justice
is not only slow, but there is often widespread corruption
and a lack of accountability. People lack trust in the court
system. The problems are particularly pronounced in former
communist countries, including China, because of both the
pace and extent of economic and political reform. Laws are
often outdated and create problems for the transformation
of these regimes.
This raises questions about how the international donor community
should support the judicial arena. A key finding is that many
of these problems are more political than technical in nature.
Our survey highlights the extent of political interference,
that connections matter and money buys justice. Another key
point is that issues of justice have an intrinsic value to
people. Thus, it is not enough to look at the legal system
merely in instrumental terms, e.g. how it contributes to socio-economic
development, but that finding fair ways of administering justice
is also an end in itself. A third point is that there is virtue
in flexibility and sensitivity to context. Improvement in
governance practices is possible not only with the help of
a liberal paradigm but also through reforming existing institutions.
Informal institutions sometimes are more suitable than formal
ones.
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